Out TD just hacked apart 4 or 5 CD drives to make the two dousers we're using. Overall, the concept is good, but I have two complaints. First, they're pretty loud, especially for our small theatre. I'm not sure if it's due to the fact that he gutted most of the original circuit boards, or something else. The second is, one of the drives gears will grind if the switch is pressed for too long. And it's hard for our PSM to tell if she's pressed it enough sometimes, since she's so far removed from it. Overall, it was a very cheap solution to our problem, but sometimes cheap isn't better. I'm wondering how easy it would be to build sometime similar to the City Theatrical douser. It doesn't have to be DMX controlled, just a on/off switch for someone to operate. I'm not too familiar with electronics in this capacity, so I'm not sure where to start. Is there a certain type of motor that should be used? Does it need some sort of circuit board to tell it how far to go forwards and backwards. I don't want to spend $250 for one of these, but it seems like it shouldn't cost too much. I've seen the DMX controlled ones that many of you are building, is that the best way to go? I guess I need to beef up on my DMX knowledge.
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